1. Field of the Disclosure
This disclosure relates to a carbon nanotube dispersion liquid and a method of manufacturing a thin layer and a display panel using the same.
2. Related Art
Since carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were discovered by S. Iijima of Maiji University with an electron microscope in 1991, a large number of studies on the carbon nanotubes have been carried out. The carbon nanotubes have graphene layers wrapped into perfect cylinders and have diameters of 1-20 nm. Graphite has unique arrangement and is in a strong flat hexagonal tubular layer structure. The top and bottom of the tubular layer are filled with free electrons and the electrons move in parallel with the tubular layer in a discrete state. A graphene layer is wrapped into a spiral to form a carbon nanotube, and thus edges are combined at different points. When the spiral or chirality of the carbon nanotube is changed, the motions of the free electrons are varied.
When the motions of the free electrons become perfectly free, the carbon nanotube reacts like metals or overcome the band gap thereof like semiconductors. The band gap is determined by the diameter of the nanotube. When the diameter of the nanotube is minimum value, the energy level may be decreased to 1 eV. The carbon nanotube has excellent mechanical strength and chemical stability and includes metallic nature and semiconductor nature. Furthermore, the carbon nanotube has a small diameter and a long length and is hollow. Accordingly, the carbon nanotube has excellent properties as a material of display devices, transistors and energy storages and has high applicability as nano-sized electronic devices.
To form the carbon nanotubes on a substrate, a carbon nanotube dispersion liquid mixed with a solvent is coated on the substrate. However, the carbon nanotube dispersion liquid has low adhesion to the substrate, and thus the carbon nanotube dispersion liquid is coated on the substrate to form a thin film and then an adhesion polymer is coated on the thin film.
Such carbon nanotube forming method includes an additional adhesion polymer coating process, and thus productivity is decreased due to equipment investments and a long tack time and contact resistance between carbon nanotubes increases due to the adhesion polymer.